US Federation of Worker Co-ops (USFWC)
Esteban Kelly, Executive Director
Civic Lab

USFWC is the national grassroots membership organization for worker cooperatives and democratic workplaces. Their mission is to build a thriving ecosystem for worker-owned and controlled businesses and cooperative leaders to power movements for racial justice and economic democracy.
Year Founded: 2004
Good jobs change lives. Worker co-ops combine excellent jobs with the mission impact of social enterprise. Worker ownership puts the control of businesses into workers’ hands by giving “worker-owners” collective agency over their working conditions, sharing in the wealth generated by their labor, and recirculating that wealth within their communities. The USFWC includes over 400 business and organizational members representing nearly 20,000 workers across the country.
Our work strengthens the worker co-op field by mobilizing co-op financing, elevating best practices in co-op business development, providing health and retirement benefits, and running grassroots, democratic programs to advocate for collective impact. As the leading steward of the field, we nurture and connect powerful leaders that inspire racial and economic justice leaders to incorporate worker-ownership into their visions for a better world.
Some of USFWC’s recent accomplishments include: in 2017, launching our own Worker Benefits program to provide affordable health benefits to USFWC members which today serves more than 1,500 workers with vision, dental, disability & accident insurance; Unlocking tens of millions of emergency funding dollars for co-ops in the CARES II Act of 2020; in 2022, passing the WORK Act which establishes official partnership for worker ownership within the US Dept of Labor and also winning inclusion of three provisions in the CHIPS and Science Act that ensure worker ownership is infused in the nation’s strategy to invest $280 billion to bolster technology, manufacturing, and clean energy businesses that year, and in 2023, relaunching two Member Councils, the Racial and Economic Justice Council and the Immigrant Co-ops Council which are member-led groups united around collective learning and action to advance social justice within the worker cooperative movement. Each year we engage 600– 1,200 participants in cooperative education programs and conferences, and support the launch of dozens of new cooperative businesses.

Esteban Kelly
Executive Director

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